Garden Stuff

A fresh find at the farmers market – chayote leaves!

Eloine

I had to go to Kaiser Thursday for a followup appointment and was happy to discover that that the local farmers market was taking place in the courtyard and very busy with packed tables of produce and customers. I thought it bit strange that the farmers market would be at the hospital but when I think about the Kaiser slogan of eat well, live well and thrive it started to make sense.

They had the usual heirloom tomatoes and seedless grapes that are in season now but there was one grower that had a few things I’ve never had a chance to try before. What I didn’t know about was chayote leaves. He told me they are the leaves from the chayote squash that can grow out of control. He said you usually stir fry them. Intrigued since it didn’t look like something you usually eat I had to try it. I brought it home and asked my mom if she could think of something to do with it. Sure enough she did. She fried it in a pan and then mixed it with a dish of brown and wild rice mixture she had along with some chared corn from Trader Joes and some basil. It was scrumptious!

The taste of the chayote leaves cooked this way has the flavor similar to an artichoke. It is a little fuzzy but nothing like raddish leaves so it’s fine when mixed in the dish. What I was surprised by was the nice flavor and healthy too as most greens seem to be!

Harvested my buttercup squash

Eloine

I only got two buttercup squash off of my large plant but they were good. I waited to pick them until the stem was shriveled up which seemed to be the right thing to do. It came easily off the plant. The squash was firm. I cut the top off of it and scooped out the seeds.

Then I chopped up a white onion, some mushrooms, a couple bay leaves, a couple springs of rosemary from the garden finely chopped and a couple of poblano peppers and fried them all in frying pan with butter, salt and some ground pepper corns.

I filled the squash about half full of this mixture as the oven was preheated to 350 degrees and then put a layer of ground tillamook chedder cheese and then another layer of this filling. I covered the squash with the top that I carved off and then cooked for an hour. After that our I put another layer of cheese on and cooked for another 45 minutes. It was scrumptious!

Sharing a garden special

Eloine

Below is a nice little video from Burpee seeds on growing lettuce. They have a special of no shipping this weekend if you mention weeknfree on checkout of an order of $40 or more. They mention in this video that lettuce is a cool season crop so they would like you get started on your Fall planting. However I have been quite successful in growing it right during the hot part of august thanks to using something called salad tables and shade cloth. More about that below the video.

Below is a photo of my salad table growing a nice crop of loose oak leaf lettuce. Every week I have been able to clear cut myself a new batch of fresh organic lettuce! You can read about how to construct a salad table here. Basically the concept is drainage, drainage, drainage. It doesn’t require much soil and is at waist height so no bending over. I made mine not at the same dimensions as this link because I wanted it to fit nicely next to my clawfoot bathtub pond. This whole area is covered with white shade cloth that blocks about 25% of the hot August sun. This allows me to still grow lettuce even in the dead heat of the Summer without it bolting. I plan to replace a lot of my ornamental plants in here with loose leaf lettuce. Not only is it tasty to eat but it’s pretty to look at as well! What a great way to accomplish two objectives at once!

 

Oak leaf lettuce broadcasted in a salad table next to my pond

 

Gotta show off my water lily as well!

and my baby blue plumbago mixed with my bubble gum pink suptertunias!

Colorful mulch alternative

Eloine
Group hunting for glass at glass beach
Glass hunters

About 5 years ago I got a chance to visit Glass Beach and try my hand at hunting for different colored glass.

Glass Beach is one of the most unique beaches in the world, not because nature created it that way, but because time and the pounding surf have corrected one of man’s mistakes.

Beginning in 1949, the area around Glass Beach became a public dump. It is hard to believe these days, but back then people dumped all kinds of refuse straight into the ocean, including old cars, and their household garbage, which of course included lots of glass. Finally in 1967, the North Coast Water Quality Board realized what a mistake it was and plans were begun for a new dump away from the ocean.

Glass closeup

Now, over 30 years later, Mother Nature has reclaimed this beach. Years of pounding wave action have deposited tons of polished glass onto the beach. Every day people come to hunt what old bits of treasure wash to shore. You’ll still see the occasional reminder of it earlier life, such as a rusted spark plug, but for the most part what you’ll see is millions of pieces of glass sparkling in the sun.

I came home with several bags full but after gathering all these bags of different colored glass the question remained as what do I do with this pretty but unusable stuff???

a colorful selection (click above to enlarge)

So in storage for 5 years it sat until I had an idea for a use today. My little old lady cactus was getting a bunch of weeds around her. I was going to put some boring old bark around her when I remembered the white colored glass I had collected from Glass beach. The old lady cactus has such a soft blueish white appearance to her that I thought the colored glass would look so nice around her base. To add a little interest I added some blue glass pebbles from my fish tank.

Currently this cactus is not in bloom but it has reddish pink flowers that grow in a crown long the top. I think the blue will set this off nicely.

I almost put some of my clear glass pebble but soon realized it magnifies the suns rays and could burn the plant. The glass from glass beach is tumbled though so it’s almost opaque with a natural etching from the tumbling process on the beach.

So there is my gardening tip. You don’t have to stick to just what the garden store sells. Recycle even if it’s many many years later!!

Below are three pictures of the cactus outside in my garden and then a couple more where I brought the cactus into my studio and played with the side lighting a little…

Sitting outside in direct sunlight
Studio light
Side lighting

Having fun foraging and learning about cattails

Eloine
Cattail with spent male spike on top and a female spike belowPhoto taken with a Nikon D200, ISO 100 @ F8 for 8 seconds. Side lighting was provided by an iPad.

 

I’ve grumbled and grumbled about this invasive stand of cattails that has invaded a muddy spot in my garden. I didn’t mind it when it was only a few but they quickly grew. Since they spread by rhizomes it was hard to pull up so they continued to grow. I thought it was time they went but before I started ripping them up I did a little research on this plant. After spending a whole day this weekend enjoying myself with this plant I came to the conclusion my thinking was all wrong. Every part of the plant at some time of the year has a use. The native American Indians used to harvest cattails and after spending a day with them I found out why.
It’s just a few days before the Summer solstice on June 21st and it appears that this is the optimum time at least for some of the things you can do with cattails. Pictures left is a perfect one for harvesting. The brown male and female stalk is not yet visible but tucked neatly between the leaves. Read more →

My pretty sunflower

Eloine

Ok anyone who knows me knows I like sunflowers. It’s hard to capture what’s magical about them. Maybe it’s just this giant glowing face staring back at me that is almost the same size as my head. The glowing color seems to fill my eyes with sunshine yet it doesn’t hurt to look at. Anyway, whatever it is I love this time of year when my sunflowers open and I get to watch the pollen circle it’s way around the center in concentric rings.

This photo is actually two shots. I lit if from behind and then I lit it from the front to highlight the center and then combined the two. The purpose was to try and capture that glowing nature that always attracts me to sunflowers.

UPDATE: Well as with all good things they come to an end and so did my sunflower. He had a long life standing on the kitchen sink but eventually he drooped his head and went to sleep. He then gave me his petals and it made a nice healthy topping on my roasted chicken with home grown dill and boiled swiss chard 🙂

Sunflower petals have a slight nutty flavor so it’s perfect sprinkled over salads or chicken. When tossed in with salads the color ads quite a flare. In addition they are a great antioxidant and have anti-inflammatory properties.